This workshop will take place at the Complexity Science Hub from November 15-16, 2021 and is organized by Peter Turchin.
Neolithic agricultural productivity and demography estimates
The goal of this workshop is to widen our understanding of the issues relevant for modeling neolithic agriculture in a way that can be the basis of agent-based models with high spatial resolution. We would like to start with investigating the the limitations of using modern datasets as the basis of large scale agricultural productivity estimates. We aim to critically assess whether methodologies developed so far have technical shortcomings that explain the observed discrepancy among expected population densities. A main focus of discussion should be the importance of two distinct contributing factors: (1) increases in agricultural productivity since the neolithic even when considering “low-intensity” agricultural practices; and (2) limitations in use of land suitable for agriculture by neolithic farmers both from environmental factors such as soil type and from social constraints.
Speakers:
Detlef Gronenborn, University of Mainz
Nicolas Antunes, University of Mainz
Isabell Schmidt, University of Cologne
Johanna Hilpert, University of Cologne
Jed O. Kaplan, Hong Kong University
Barbara Horejs, Austrian Academy of Sciences
Daniel Kondor, CSH
Jenny Reddish, CSH
Peter Turchin, CSH